Getting dinner on the table can be a royal struggle. Sometimes it’s exhaustion and an empty fridge, other times it’s a lack of inspiration or time. In any event, one hand starts gravitating towards the phone and the other starts reaching for the take-out menu drawer. Then come the pangs of guilt. It’s expensive. Not as healthy. I should really make my husband a home cooked meal. He’s worth it. So am I.
Beaten by my conscience, I open my fridge and stare at the contents hoping a dinner idea will jump out at me. Languishing vegetables, milk, pickles, chocolate, condiments and a Tupperware filled with long-forgotten leftovers. Not promising. When that fails, I close the fridge and open the freezer hoping I’ll find dinner there. Ice cubes, peas, ice cream, unidentifiable thing in a Ziploc bag, chicken breasts. I nearly close the freezer, but stop myself: “Chicken breasts. OK, that’s a start.”
But a chicken breast is a blank canvas, so all home cooks need a few good chicken breast recipes in their arsenal. That’s why this Tasty Kitchen submission by spygirl jumped out at me. I’m always looking for a weeknight dinner that starts with chicken breasts, and Thai Honey Peanut Chicken sounded mighty good.
This recipe was particularly attractive not only because Thai food is my absolute favorite, but also because I had everything else for the recipe in my pantry or fridge.
First cut your chicken into pieces. Here’s a neat little trick: Cut off the tip of the chicken breast, then cut the breast down the middle, making it easier to cut even, square pieces.
In a medium bowl add the soy sauce. This is Filipino soy sauce, which I think is superior to all other soy sauces, thanks to a friend of mine. She’s got me hooked. But all soy sauces will work just fine.
Then add the honey. Spray your measuring cup or spoon with vegetable cooking spray before you squeeze in the honey and it will slide right out instead of sticking to the cup.
Add the lime juice next. If you don’t have a juicer, use a whisk to get the juice out of your lime.
Then add the minced garlic. (Here is a quick tutorial on how to mince garlic like my Mom does. You want to learn. It’s like magic).
Add the peanut butter and curry powder, then finally the Sriracha. The latter is optional, but I promise it doesn’t make the dish too spicy.
Whisk the ingredients together. Add the chicken pieces and then marinate for 2-3 hours.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the chicken (along with all that good sauce) for 7-8 minutes or until the chicken is done.
Serve with rice and top with sesame seeds. We added chopped cilantro too because we love it and it adds some color to the plate.
I made this dish in about 30 minutes, and it didn’t disappoint. As long as I keep a spare chicken breast or two in my freezer, I know I’ll be pulling this recipe out whenever that I find my hands reaching for the phone and the take-out menu drawer.
Thank you spygirl for this lovely dish!
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Description
Quick, sweet, optionally spicy stir fry—scales up and down, accommodates veggies or tofu, and best with homemade peanut butter.
Ingredients
- 1 pound Chicken, In Chunks
- ¼ cups Soy Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons Honey
- 1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
- 1 teaspoon Minced Garlic (approximately 1 Large Clove)
- 1 Tablespoon Natural Peanut Butter (heaping Tablespoon Even Better)
- ½ teaspoons Curry Powder
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha (optional)
Preparation Instructions
Mix ingredients and marinate chicken for 2-3 hours.
Cook chicken in the sauce over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes or until chicken is done. Reduce heat to medium-low and add precooked veggies if desired. Serve topped with sesame seeds.
To thicken sauce if needed: reduce heat to medium-low and add a cornstarch slurry (1 teaspoon cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water).
Substitutions: replace chicken with tofu; replace peanut butter with tahini or another nut butter; if using regular peanut butter (i.e. Skippy) instead of natural peanut butter, reduce honey by 1 tablespoon.
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Three Many Cooks is the always-entertaining food blog of Pam Anderson and her two daughters, Maggy and Sharon. Pam is a well-known and much-respected food writer and author, Maggy is a “hippy adventurer meets 1950s housewife,” and Sharon refers to herself as a recovering food snob learning to survive on a graduate student’s budget. Theirs is a strong relationship both inside and outside the kitchen, and it shows in the food they create and the stories they tell.
49 Comments
Comments are closed for this recipe.
Vicki (piggledy) on 1.22.2011
Oh, this sounds great! I’m planning on making it.
For those who find the sauce gets thick quickly, you’ll find, sauces with peanut butter do that. You have to keep adding liquid, because the peanut butter just keeps getting thicker and thicker. Not a problem, though, just go with the flow, and add water or broth, deglazing as you go – it will be fine!
I hope I’ve got a lime, that would be an essential flavor, to me, for this dish, so if I haven’t, I’ll hold until tomorrow. Oh, I just can’t wait! Yum. Thank you for posting this lovley dish!
love, piggledy
Alisha on 1.17.2011
That looks delicious! It has made a follower out of me!
Thawing chicken now!! Thanks for sharing.
Lisa on 1.14.2011
Made this for dinner tonight and it turned out amazingly good! Everyone loved it! I added some sauteed green pepper & mushrooms to it just to give it a little color & pizazz! Thanks for this simple, yet elegant recipe!
Bridget on 1.9.2011
I saw this recipe yesterday and made it last night for dinner. It was fabulous and I have shared it with several people already. The only change I made was to substitute the honey for Hot Squeeze (sweet heat chipotle sauce – http://thehotsqueeze.com – available at Whole Foods & Amazon.com too). I also used the chopped cilantro on top and added chopped scallions and crushed virginia peanuts. Yummy!!!
Renee on 1.9.2011
This recipe was AWESOME! I too, did not have time for marinating – It sat in the marinade as I prepped the rice and got it cooking, but that was it. It still turned out perfect! I served it over rice and even my 8 year old loved it! Had a little heat, but not too spicy for kids although I did only use 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha to be safe. Next time I will probably use the full teaspoon. I love recipes that can be made with ingredients on hand and seem like they took hours to prep – this is one of them! And just a hint, I keep the little bottles of reconstituted lime and lemon juice in my frig all the time…because, really…who has a fresh lime or a lemon on hand at any given time? I know I usually don’t!
Megan A. on 1.8.2011
I am ALL OVER this one. . . tomorrow. . . along with the cinnamon rolls. . . .Oh MAN! What New Years resolution???
rivergirl10 on 1.7.2011
My favorite dish is Amazing Chicken at our favorite Thai place in Tampa. I have been trying to figure out how to duplicate that taste.
I HOPE THIS IS IT!!!!
Hansengirl1168 on 1.7.2011
You said you made this in about 30 minutes, but the recipe says to marinate the chiken for 2-3 hours. Is there a shortcut? Can you just put the chicken in the sauce then immediately put the whole mix on the stove and cook it, or does that not come out as well?
mandyg1970 on 1.7.2011
It’s become a regular around our house. We make this twice a month. So easy and yummy – makes for great leftovers to send in the kids’ lunches, too.
sawdust on 12.16.2010
Cauliflower Soup!!! Yummm!!!
curegirl0421 on 12.15.2010
I too was slightly startled by the 2-3 hour marinating time (I hadn’t read past the 10 minute prep time haha), but it was fine anyway! I ended up tossing the chicken and sauce in plastic and doing it the next day and it was fabulous!
I also accidentally added twice the recommended curry, but it was still fine. I had no chili paste so I used some ground cayenne pepper for spice… and I used regular soy sauce, having never in my life seen Filipino soy sauce ever anywhere, although now I’m intrigued!
I’m always afraid of undercooking chicken, so I *may* have overcooked this a tad, but my daughter loved it over rice anyway, and requested a “repeat” – quite a compliment from her!
Thanks for the great recipe!
hEB on 11.15.2010
I made this tonight– it was fantastic. So simple and easy. Whole Foods doesn’t sell Sriracha– so i subbed it with a chili paste that one of the employess recommended and it was perfect.
on 11.13.2010
What a site!
sandy96 on 11.13.2010
This recipe is awsome. I made them for our students at our private school and they all liked it. Thank you
Brandy on 11.9.2010
Very good, I also added water while cooking.
Jodi on 11.6.2010
my daughters (11 and 9) just had this for our supper. SO GOOD!! I can’t believe that something so easy was so delicious. I marinated it for about 3 hours. I don’t have the chili sauce usually – well, ever – so what else could I use to add a little heat that would be a common ingredient? Seriously, I was impressed with myself that I actually had curry powder in my cupboard!
Instead of rice I served it over whole wheat pasta – excellent.
My girls thought it smelled amazing and tasted even better – the true stamp of approval!! ;0)
Will be making this again!
Leah on 11.4.2010
We just made this a couple nights ago. It was delicious. I made it exactly as stated on recipe, except used lemon juice instead of lime (did not have lime). We served it over rice. It will definantly become part of our “rotation”.
Kym on 11.3.2010
I made this last night for my husband and children and they LOVED it! My husband, while falling asleep with a smile on his face, said “thanks for the amazing dinner… it felt like a birthday dinner.” And off to sleep he went. Thanks for sharing amazing recipes that create even better memories.
Kym
Cwiggs on 11.3.2010
Morgaine28, the sauce reduced for us during cooking. The picture above may have been taken in the beginning or mid-way through the cooking process.
Also, I didn’t use a nonstick pan, so I did get a little bit of darkening because the sauce couldn’t move about the pan as well. Though it didn’t seize up, I know what you’re referring to; it thickened faster than I expected. I turned the heat down to medium and still found the 7-8 minute cooking time to be correct. (I had cut my chicken in smaller, more bite-sized pieces than shown.)
Cwiggs on 11.3.2010
Made this last night in a “what’s for dinner?” panic. I only had time for 30 minutes of marinating and it seemed like plenty of time. The chicken was tender and flavorful.
We had a little extra sauce, so we put the chicken over rice with that. It thickened when cooking and became the consistency of gravy. (But then, I had a heavy hand with the peanut butter.)
Katrina on 11.3.2010
This looks amazing — I’ll definitely have to give it a try.
morgaine28 on 11.2.2010
made this last night…left out the lime juice because I didn’t have any on hand, and used chunky peanut butter. I used 4 chicken tenderloins…not sure if that was a pound, but the sauce to chicken ratio seemed a little off (not enough sauce compared to the pictures above–just enough to coat the chicken). Also, as soon as it hit the pan on medium high, the sauce started to kind of seize up and got very dark; I was afraid it was burning due to the sugar in the honey and peanut butter. It still tasted pretty good, even though it didn’t look as pretty as the picture. Next time I’ll try doubling the sauce recipe, and cooking at a slightly lower temp unless someone has other suggestions.
Holly H. on 11.2.2010
This looks fabulous! Can’t wait to try it!
Beth on 11.2.2010
Marinating right now!! I didn’t have lime, so squeezed in some lemon. Made my own curry powder (2 TBS black pepper, 2TBS paprika, 2 TBS cumin, 1TBS coriander, 1TBS cloves, 1 t nutmeg, 1 t cinnamon, 1/2 t cardamom (using whole spices, grind in grinder). Yum.
Also, don’t have the Sriracha, so used Roasted Red chili paste for a little kick.
pvfrompv on 11.2.2010
Had all the ingredients on hand, so went home and marinated the chicken while having my post-work wine and newspaper. We like it spicy, plus I wasn’t paying attention (see wine comment above) so put in a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon of the Sriracha. It gave it a bit more “personality” and wasn’t too hot for us. Garnished with green onion and sesame seeds. Definitely a keeper – sort of a Thai Kung Pao. I’d try it with veggies but my husband said it was great just the way it was. Kudos Spygirl!
ellie g. on 11.2.2010
I made this dish last night minus the chili sauce ( didn’t have any). It is good but I think it would of been tastier with the chili sauce, it needed that kick. Other than that it was very simple to prepare. I will definitely make it again.
Karen on 11.2.2010
Can’t wait! Printing this out now!
Melissa on 11.2.2010
30 minutes of hands on time…not uncommon for recipes to go by that.
Kabira on 11.2.2010
30 min sonds good but where did the marinate for 2-3 hours fit into the 30 minutes?
Jayne on 11.2.2010
Looks delish! And I have every ingredient on hand too
Carina on 11.1.2010
Can this be marinated longer (i.e. pull together in the am and cook after work?
Sounds yummy!
rozanie on 11.1.2010
Wow! This sounds SO good. Can’t wait to try it tomorrow!
Thanks for posting this!
Missy on 11.1.2010
This sounds amazing! Like many cooks, I’m always looking for a new, different recipe that I can fix that my ds3 and ds1 will eat! This just might be the one! Looking forward to making this soon!
ThreeManyCooks on 11.1.2010
Hey Kelley, what I meant by 30 minute dinner is that you can throw together the marinade and chop the chicken in about 10 minutes and then you can cook your rice and the chicken in about 20. Yes, there is some time to marinate but I didn’t really think of that as cooking. If you can spend ten minutes in the morning (before work) or in the late afternoon throwing this marinade together and putting the chicken in, you’ve got one quick dinner come 6:00. Also, if you’re pressed for time you don’t have to let it marinate for that long!
Kim in MD on 11.1.2010
I have been a fan of Pam Anderson’s for years! She used to write for what is still my favorite food magazine. Her recipes are absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to try this Thai chicken recipe!
Kelly on 11.1.2010
Don’t quite understand your 30 mintues to dinner when you have to marinate for 2-3 hours. Is that a typo?
Sara K. on 11.1.2010
This looks delicious! I’m totally making it this week!
As an aside…any recipe that calls for minced garlic, I just get out the mini grater I have and grate the garlic right into the dish…I’d probably cut my fingers off trying to slice such pretty, neat little slices like your mom!
Beth on 11.1.2010
I was just wondering what to make for dinner tonight. This sounds perfect!
Bonita on 11.1.2010
As an American who grew up in the Philippines I heartily concur with your belief that Filipino soy sauce is superior! However, I would like to point out that while you are using the superior country’s soy sauce, it is my opinion (I could be wrong) that you may be using the inferior brand. If you ever run across it, Silver Swan is the absolute best soy sauce out there! Better than Datu Puti. Datu Puti however, is a great compromise if Silver Swan is unavailable.
spygirl on 11.1.2010
I am so glad to be able to share this one — and why didn’t I think of cilantro before?
Tricia @ Saving Room for Dessert on 11.1.2010
Oh my – this looks terrific! I am thinking this is going to be cooked in my kitchen very soon. Thanks for sharing – and great photos too!
Amber | Bluebonnets & Brownies on 11.1.2010
Wouldn’t you know, I *just* pulled 2 chicken breasts out of the freezer to defrost for tonight’s dinner. Now I know what I’m going to do with them!
Maria on 11.1.2010
Great recipe and photos. Thanks for sharing!
Heather (Heather's Dish) on 11.1.2010
i absolutely cannot wait to eat this! holy yum…
april on 11.1.2010
PS – that’s a great idea to spray the measuring cup for the honey – bypasses a lot of irritation!
april on 11.1.2010
Looks yummy! My son loved the chicken with jelly in it, so I’m sure chicken with peanut butter will be a big hit too!
Jodie (allgoodinmommyhood.com) on 11.1.2010
We love chicken and broccoli…I’ll have to try this one!
Tabitha (FromSingletoMarried) on 11.1.2010
oh yum – this looks amazing and I love that the prep time is short too!
Jessica @ How Sweet It Is on 11.1.2010
30 minutes?! This is definitely going on the menu in the next week!